When it was first announced that this season would be taking the structure of a murder mystery, I didn't expect to be as invested as I am. And honestly, I didn't expect the writers to do as much with it as they have. They really kept us guessing until the very end, just like any good murder mystery should.
And do you wanna know the best part about this? I was right to call out that the writers had let a huge clue slip early into the season. I was just wrong about what that clue was. I was so sure that Cameron shooting that Icicle into Rick's tire (the clue that led me to the possibility of Icicle's return) had to mean something that I completely ignored the evidence of Sylvester telling Rick about the hourglass's limiter. I got one prediction right, but I got the bigger one totally wrong! And just like any good murder mystery, your audience can be so totally convinced that they're right, and yet when all the evidence comes out they doesn't feel betrayed!
And do you know the funniest part about the reveal about the Ultra-Humanite being in Sylvester's body? I predicted it almost a year and a half ago! If you go back to my review of "Summer School: Chapter One", you can see that I said "Let's kick things off with Joel McHale as "Not Starman". I'm sorry, Joel is such a good actor, and he made the lines he said at the diner sound so menacing that I think I've already predicted the twist. Joel McHale doesn't play Starman during this season. He instead plays a disguised version of The Shade!" Come on, I get at least half a point for that!
But again, the funny part about me saying that is that going into this season I absolutely did not suspect Sylvester was the killer. When he showed up in the finale and he and Courtney holding the staff together made it light up brighter than ever, I was convinced that this was Starman! I wanted to believe it was him, and every single time I thought that the writers would do the easy thing and make him a has-been that only exists to tell Courtney how much better than him she is (or just turn him into a straight-up villain), the writers continued to prove that this was a character they respected! I was so excited that he was being treated like a real character, I was invested in him recognizing his flaws and wanting to learn to overcome them, I was so utterly flabbergasted that a straight white guy on the CW was *being treated like a human being* that I didn't even consider the possibility that Starman would be the killer! Not to mention the line about the Staff bringing him back would allow him to become Skyman like he is in the comics. And all of that buildup is what makes this twist so good!
How many of you guys thought that Starman was the killer at the beginning of the season? How many of you guys stopped believing that once he helped Courtney through that contrived "liar revealed" conflict that they dropped like a bad habit? How many of you guys still thought Sylvester was the killer before we got the reveal of Icicle's return? I'd be willing to bet that almost nobody still thought Sylvester was the killer by that point. And *that* is once again the reason this twist and this entire season works as well as it does!
If you're worried that this reveal means that every moment of us getting to know Sylvester Pemberton was a lie, I'm going to disagree with you there. Ultra-Humanite gave us a more than great performance in the role of Starman despite his nefarious intentions. Let's all remember that his performance was good enough to fool the Cosmic Staff itself, and that was back in the season 2 finale when all he did was touch it a single time! Sylvester was a guy that wanted to do the right thing, but because of his rich, privileged upbringing he never learned how. He's a manchild that has real anger issues, and yet he was still respected as a hero and would've wanted to make sure his friends got the respect they deserved too. Even what he said to Pat, trying to push him away, could've had some elements of truth to it. One of the only things we did get to see from Sylvester was in "Summer School: Chapter Ten" when he said that Eclipso threatened to kill Pat, so that's why he voted to kill Bruce Gordon. I one hundred percent believe Sylvester would try to push Pat away to protect him! Ultra-Humanite gave us a truly great performance as Sylvester!
But once you take away Ultra-Humanite's Edgar Suit (I really hope someone gets that reference), what's left of him? What's left is a deeply insecure guy that just really wants to be adored. He says himself that that was his favorite part about being Delores Winters, getting to be famous and adored by everyone. Can you imagine what would happen if you gave that guy the body of a superhero, who are often regarded as the modern day Greek gods? The character is actually really simple, but in this case it's actually a good thing! He's like the Shade in how being a very simple character works to his benefit. He even gets a line very similar to the Shade in how he says that he doesn't care about Icicle and Dragon King's plan.
Oh, and one more thing I liked about this episode that wasn't about the twist, I liked that Cindy only had one of her white streaks in her hair. Yolanda cut it in "Frenemies - Chapter Six: The Betrayal", so I really appreciate the crew's attention to detail. And yes, I will continue to point the attention to detail out at any chance I get.
All in all, I'm excited for next week's finale, but I'm also incredibly dejected because after next week... That's it. There's no more Stargirl. We will likely never again get to see many of these characters in live-action. And especially after the episode I just watched, it utterly baffles me that *this* is the show the WB canceled. After the writers kept the Sylvester twist in their pants for almost a year and a half, *this* is the show that didn't get moved to HBO Max? Screw WB forever for this cancellation! And don't even pretend to tell me that the CW advertising the next episode as the "season finale" instead of the "series finale" means anything, okay? Especially not now that we know the details of WB's deal with Nexstar. Win, lose or draw, next week is the *final* episode of Stargirl! And I pray that it's a good one!
9 / 10.
And do you wanna know the best part about this? I was right to call out that the writers had let a huge clue slip early into the season. I was just wrong about what that clue was. I was so sure that Cameron shooting that Icicle into Rick's tire (the clue that led me to the possibility of Icicle's return) had to mean something that I completely ignored the evidence of Sylvester telling Rick about the hourglass's limiter. I got one prediction right, but I got the bigger one totally wrong! And just like any good murder mystery, your audience can be so totally convinced that they're right, and yet when all the evidence comes out they doesn't feel betrayed!
And do you know the funniest part about the reveal about the Ultra-Humanite being in Sylvester's body? I predicted it almost a year and a half ago! If you go back to my review of "Summer School: Chapter One", you can see that I said "Let's kick things off with Joel McHale as "Not Starman". I'm sorry, Joel is such a good actor, and he made the lines he said at the diner sound so menacing that I think I've already predicted the twist. Joel McHale doesn't play Starman during this season. He instead plays a disguised version of The Shade!" Come on, I get at least half a point for that!
But again, the funny part about me saying that is that going into this season I absolutely did not suspect Sylvester was the killer. When he showed up in the finale and he and Courtney holding the staff together made it light up brighter than ever, I was convinced that this was Starman! I wanted to believe it was him, and every single time I thought that the writers would do the easy thing and make him a has-been that only exists to tell Courtney how much better than him she is (or just turn him into a straight-up villain), the writers continued to prove that this was a character they respected! I was so excited that he was being treated like a real character, I was invested in him recognizing his flaws and wanting to learn to overcome them, I was so utterly flabbergasted that a straight white guy on the CW was *being treated like a human being* that I didn't even consider the possibility that Starman would be the killer! Not to mention the line about the Staff bringing him back would allow him to become Skyman like he is in the comics. And all of that buildup is what makes this twist so good!
How many of you guys thought that Starman was the killer at the beginning of the season? How many of you guys stopped believing that once he helped Courtney through that contrived "liar revealed" conflict that they dropped like a bad habit? How many of you guys still thought Sylvester was the killer before we got the reveal of Icicle's return? I'd be willing to bet that almost nobody still thought Sylvester was the killer by that point. And *that* is once again the reason this twist and this entire season works as well as it does!
If you're worried that this reveal means that every moment of us getting to know Sylvester Pemberton was a lie, I'm going to disagree with you there. Ultra-Humanite gave us a more than great performance in the role of Starman despite his nefarious intentions. Let's all remember that his performance was good enough to fool the Cosmic Staff itself, and that was back in the season 2 finale when all he did was touch it a single time! Sylvester was a guy that wanted to do the right thing, but because of his rich, privileged upbringing he never learned how. He's a manchild that has real anger issues, and yet he was still respected as a hero and would've wanted to make sure his friends got the respect they deserved too. Even what he said to Pat, trying to push him away, could've had some elements of truth to it. One of the only things we did get to see from Sylvester was in "Summer School: Chapter Ten" when he said that Eclipso threatened to kill Pat, so that's why he voted to kill Bruce Gordon. I one hundred percent believe Sylvester would try to push Pat away to protect him! Ultra-Humanite gave us a truly great performance as Sylvester!
But once you take away Ultra-Humanite's Edgar Suit (I really hope someone gets that reference), what's left of him? What's left is a deeply insecure guy that just really wants to be adored. He says himself that that was his favorite part about being Delores Winters, getting to be famous and adored by everyone. Can you imagine what would happen if you gave that guy the body of a superhero, who are often regarded as the modern day Greek gods? The character is actually really simple, but in this case it's actually a good thing! He's like the Shade in how being a very simple character works to his benefit. He even gets a line very similar to the Shade in how he says that he doesn't care about Icicle and Dragon King's plan.
Oh, and one more thing I liked about this episode that wasn't about the twist, I liked that Cindy only had one of her white streaks in her hair. Yolanda cut it in "Frenemies - Chapter Six: The Betrayal", so I really appreciate the crew's attention to detail. And yes, I will continue to point the attention to detail out at any chance I get.
All in all, I'm excited for next week's finale, but I'm also incredibly dejected because after next week... That's it. There's no more Stargirl. We will likely never again get to see many of these characters in live-action. And especially after the episode I just watched, it utterly baffles me that *this* is the show the WB canceled. After the writers kept the Sylvester twist in their pants for almost a year and a half, *this* is the show that didn't get moved to HBO Max? Screw WB forever for this cancellation! And don't even pretend to tell me that the CW advertising the next episode as the "season finale" instead of the "series finale" means anything, okay? Especially not now that we know the details of WB's deal with Nexstar. Win, lose or draw, next week is the *final* episode of Stargirl! And I pray that it's a good one!
9 / 10.
